Grow Your Influence
By Kristy-Lee Billett
Join co-hosts Juliet Robinson and Kristy-Lee Billett for their regular conversations on all things leadership.
No corporate jargon, no text book ideologies, just real life experience unpacked in a relaxed way to help you be your best boss, and lead your team with confidence, clarity and control.
Grow Your InfluenceJul 06, 2023
Do You Really Have a Team?
Welcome to the Grow Your Influence podcast.
It is not uncommon to find ‘teams’ that are actually more a group of individuals working together but focusing on their own silos. In today’s episode Juliet and Kristy-Lee are discussing the difference between the two and how we can build a team if we realise we don’t actually have one.
When you have a group of high-performing individuals who are used to working autonomously, you are not getting any of the benefits of a team. You are probably seeing them focusing on their own goals and ‘running their own race’ and, as a leader, this can be both challenging and disheartening.
One of the keys to a team is trust and when this is missing it’s inevitable that people will work in their silos. The good news is that it takes focus in just a few areas to build trust and create a team. In this episode we discuss the three things you need to focus on to build your team and create benefits for all your team members that go far beyond productivity.
Have you taken on a team that wasn’t really a team?
What actions and strategies did you take to create your team? We would love to hear from you. You can share your thoughts and ask questions at https://www.facebook.com/growyourinfluence/
And if you would like to connect with us you can do this at:
Kristy-Lee People Powered Business
Juliet Big Goals
Leading Yourself
Welcome to the Grow Your Influence podcast. In today’s episode Juliet and Kristy-Lee are discussing the concept of leading yourself.
In leadership circles, we talk a lot about leading others effectively, but we give little if any thought to leading ourselves. Yet the truth is, just like putting on your own oxygen mask first, you do need to start with leading yourself effectively.
Today we discuss what leading yourself involves and looks like. From self-awareness to selfcare and everything in between, join the discussion on leading yourself.
What actions and strategies do you take to lead yourself effectively? You can share your thoughts and ask questions at https://www.facebook.com/growyourinfluence/
The Summer Series Recap
Welcome back to regular programming at Grow Your Influence.
In this episode, Juliet and Kristy-Lee recap the Summer Series of interview and share their favourite moments from the interviews that were conducted over the summer.
From leading with our heads and hearts from Kirstin Ferguson’s new book, through to the prevalence of toxic people and psychopaths in our workplaces with David Gillespie, there was a huge amount to recap.
We really appreciated each and every one of our guests and we hope you enjoyed these discussions and their insights.
What was your favourite discussion throughout the summer series? We’d love to hear. You can share your thoughts and ask questions at
https://www.facebook.com/growyourinfluence/
Why Holistic Wellbeing Makes You a Better Leader with Dr Masi
Welcome to the final episode in our Summer Series. Juliet and Kristy-Lee really hope you have enjoyed the amazing guests we have interviewed over the summer.Today Kristy-Lee is chatting to Dr Masi Njawaya. Dr Masi is a Sport, Exercise & Lifestyle Physician, Medical doctor, health coach and advocate. She is the Founder of Herself Health which is a Leadership Health & Wellbeing company working with business owners, entrepreneurs, leaders and teams to empower them to be the best versions of themselves by being holistically healthy. In today’s discussion, we unpack Dr Masi’s journey to become a medical Doctor, and what she discovered along the way about the importance of prioritising her health and wellbeing to achieve more, in less time and by prioritising the things that were important for her. Dr Masi generously shares with us the challenges she sees business owners consistently face, and some great, practical strategies we can all start implementing straight away across her 5 key pillars for health. If you’d like to connect with Dr Masi you can view her website here:https://www.herselfhealth.com
Strategies to Help You Avoid a Hiring Disaster with Recruitment Strategist Deb Houston
In today’s Summer Series episode, we are joined by a special guest, who is here to chat to us about avoiding hiring disasters! Deb Houston of Phlox Consulting is a Hiring Strategist and Mentor, she has been helping job-seekers and hiring managers nail their interviews and land their dream jobs and employees for more than seventeen years. She takes a supportive and consultative approach to recruitment, personalising the process for each and every client, whilst always making sure it’s fun along the way. For Deb, finding the right job or candidate is a lot like dating–you just have to find a match you want to commit to! Today is Part 2 of our discussion where Deb and Kristy-Lee are discussing essential strategies to help you avoid a hiring disaster! We would love to hear about your experiences and insights from hiring staff–whether they are nightmare or success stories. You can share your experiences and ask questions at https://www.facebook.com/growyourinfluence/
The 3 Biggest Hiring Mistakes We Make with Recruitment Strategist Deb Houston
In today’s Summer Series episode, we are joined by a special guest, who is here to chat to us about avoiding hiring disasters! Deb Houston of Phlox Consulting is a Hiring Strategist and Mentor, she has been helping job-seekers and hiring managers nail their interviews and land their dream jobs and employees for more than seventeen years. She takes a supportive and consultative approach to recruitment, personalising the process for each and every client, whilst always making sure it’s fun along the way. For Deb, finding the right job or candidate is a lot like dating–you just have to find a match you want to commit to! Today is Part 1 of a 2-part discussion Deb and I had on this topic, and today we’re sharing the 3 (or more) biggest hiring mistakes we see businesses make and why you should avoid them. Join us again next episode for part 2, where we share proactive hiring strategies everyone should be using. We would love to hear about your experiences and insights from hiring staff–whether they are nightmare or success stories. You can share your experiences and ask questions at https://www.facebook.com/growyourinfluence/
Dealing with Psychopaths at Work with David Gillespie
This episode is the second part of our interview with David Gillespie. If you missed the last episode (episode 62) we recommend you go back and catch that first. In the last episode, David talked about how to recognise psychopaths at work and how you can manage the impact.
In this episode, he talks about how to minimise the impact of psychopaths in your life particularly at work. Toxic people have no empathy and suck our time, energy and confidence. When we work with them we are constantly having to find ways to work around them or minimise their impact on us. And that’s once we realise what they are doing! If you have ever worked with someone who seemed charming initially and then turned out to be a bully, undermined you and made you doubt yourself, then this episode is for you. David Gillespie is a former lawyer and best-selling author. His research into psychopathy means that his latest book, Toxic at Work is full of facts and advice we can all use to deal with the psychopaths in our lives. He also builds a case study in the book that will resonate with so many of us. We have talked about difficult people in previous episodes, and in this two-episode interview chats with David about the psychopaths (and not the knife-wielding sort!) we encounter at work. We would love to hear about your experiences and insights from encountering and dealing with psychopaths in your workplace.
You can share your experiences and ask questions at https://www.facebook.com/growyourinfluence/
You can find more information on David, including more about his research at https://davidgillespie.org/ and purchase his books at any good bookstore or on his website.
Dealing with Toxic People at Work with David Gillespie
Have you ever worked with someone who seemed charming initially and then turned out to be a bully? Did they undermine you and leave you and others in the team second-guessing yourselves? You might have been working with someone displaying psychopathic traits. After his own experience working with someone like this, David Gillespie set out to understand what was going on and why people behave this way. David Gillespie is a former lawyer and the best-selling author of Sweet Poison, a book about how we are all poisoning ourselves with sugar. That was when we first encountered his work and the book is generally credited with starting the current wave of sugar awareness in Australia. David’s research into psychopathy means that his latest book, Toxic at Work is full of facts and advice we can all use to deal with the psychopaths in our lives. He also builds a case study in the book that will resonate with so many of us. We have talked about difficult people in previous episodes, and in the next two episodes, Juliet chats with David about the psychopaths (and not the knife-wielding sort!)we encounter at work. Toxic people have no empathy and suck our time, energy and confidence. When we work with them we are constantly having to find ways to work around them or minimise their impact on us. And that’s once we realise what they are doing! This episode is the first part of the interview where David talks about how we identify the psychopaths living and working amongst us and some of the strategies we can use to manage their impact on our work and lives. In the next episode, David will expand on how to ensure psychopaths cannot derail you or your team. We would love to hear about your experiences and insights from encountering and dealing with psychopaths in your workplace. You can share your experiences and ask questions at https://www.facebook.com/growyourinfluence/
You can find more information on David Gillespie, including more about his comprehensive research and other books on a range of topics, at https://davidgillespie.org/ and you can purchase his books at any good bookstore or on his website
Leading with Your Heart with Kirstin Ferguson
This is the second half of Juliet’s conversation with Kirstin Ferguson, one of the world's most recognised leadership experts. Kirstin has recently published her second book, Head &Heart and it is full of practical wisdom for every type of leader! If you missed episode 1 of this interview we recommend you go back and listen to that before diving into this episode. In our first episode, we talked about leading with our heads, something most of us find familiar. In this second episode, Juliet talks with Kirstin about what leading with our hearts looks like. And these are often the elements of leadership we find the most challenging. Kirstin is incredibly generous in sharing her extensive leadership experience and wisdom in a very forthright and refreshing way and there are so many gems in this episode. If you haven’t already, you can also rate yourself using the Head & Heart Leader Scale at https://headheartleader.com/. This simple questionnaire can provide insights into where we put the emphasis in our leadership. We would love to hear your insights from completing the scale and how it reflects your leadership style. You can share your experiences and ask questions at https://www.facebook.com/growyourinfluence/
You can find more information on Kirstin at https://www.kirstinferguson.com/ and purchase her books at any good bookstore on her website at https://www.kirstinferguson.com/books/head-heart/
Leading with Your Head with Kirstin Ferguson
There are aspects of leadership that many people find easy and others that don’t seem to come so naturally. Kirstin Ferguson is one of the world's most recognised leadership experts and in the first of this two-part interview, Juliet talks with Kirstin about her book, Head& Heart and delves into what leading with our heads looks like. The winner of the International Thinkers50 Distinguished Award for Leadership, Kirstinis also ranked in the top 50 thinkers in the world. She researches, writes, speaks and advises major international brands on what it means to be a modern leader, and how to build modern leadership cultures it was such a pleasure to talk with her about leadership both internationally and here in Australia. Kirstin’s career includes three decades of senior leadership experience including a previous appointment by the Australian Prime Minister as Acting Chair and Deputy Chair of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. She was recognised as a Member of the Order of Australia in 2023 for her significant contributions to business, and gender equality.
Kirstin has previously been the CEO of a global consulting firm, was a senior executive at a leading corporate law firm and spent nearly 10 years as an Officer in the Royal Australian Air Force, including at a fighter jet squadron. She holds a PhD in leadership and culture as well as Honours degrees in Law, and also History. She is an Adjunct Professor at the QUTBusiness School and a Sir Winston Churchill Fellow. Phew! In this first episode, you may recognise some of the ways you lead with your head. You can also rate yourself using the Head & Heart Leader Scaleathttps://headheartleader.com/.This simple questionnaire can provide insights into where we put the emphasis in our leadership. We would love to hear your insights from completing the scale and how it reflects your leadership style.
You can share your experiences and ask questions at https://www.facebook.com/growyourinfluence/
You can find more information on Kirstin at https://www.kirstinferguson.com/ and purchase her books at any good bookstore on her website at https://www.kirstinferguson.com/books/head-heart/
In episode 2 we will dive into what leading with your heart looks like
Fully Connected with Author Mel Kettle
At this time of year many of us are winding down and it is a great time to think about how we can recharge our batteries and get set for the new year.
In this episode Juliet interviews Mel Kettle, an internationally recognised coach, speaker and author about some of the key lessons she has learned about taking care of herself and which she shares in her book Fully Connected – How great leaders prioritise themselves, reclaim their energy and find joy.
We would love to hear from you about how you look after yourself and ’put your oxygen mask on first’. You can share your experiences and ask questions at https://www.facebook.com/growyourinfluence/
You can find Mel’s book and information about her work at www.melkettle.com and you can connect with her at https://www.linkedin.com/in/melkettle
Leadership Behaviours with Brett White from Be Leaders. It’s not just what we do – but how we do it that matters.
Welcome to the Grow Your Influence Summer Series.
Over the Australian Summer months each year, Juliet and Kristy-Lee brin you a series of conversations they have been having with leaders, leadership experts and inspiring and influential thinkers, authors and experts.
In today's episode, Kristy-Lee is speaking with Brett White of Be Leaders.
Brett has worked with hundreds of leaders across not only Australia but the globe, and works with organisations to help them develop their leaders, with a special passion for emerging leaders.
Brett is passionate about helping leaders, teams and organisations find their hidden potential. His hope is that as they develop a deeper understanding of themselves and the world around them, they will create meaningful change.
Brett has worked with over 50 organisations and 350 leaders and influencers. He is accredited in Life Coaching, Thought Dynamics and Organisational Leadership and has run hundreds of face to face and online training workshops and keynote sessions throughout Australia, New Zealand, Pakistan, Singapore and Cambodia.
In today’s discussion we’re talking about leader behaviour. This is something Brett has been doing a lot of research on recently.
Today we talk about key behaviours great leaders should be exhibiting, it’s impact on organisational culture and its connection to employee engagement and organisational success.
You can have great leadership skill, technical knowledge, and ability, but without the right behaviour, your success as a leader is limited. The biggest contributor to employee engagement is the relationship employees have with their leaders. It is not just what you do as a leader that is critical, it is the WAY you do it, and WHO you are when you do.
Leader behaviour is key to great teams, building trust, creating alignment, healthy culture, thriving organisations and delivering results.
If you’d like to connect with Brett, you can do so here:
https://beleaders.com.au/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/brett-white-825b9385/
We would love to hear from you about your experience with building great behaviours as a leader, and with the leaders on your team. You can share your experiences and ask questions at https://www.facebook.com/growyourinfluence/
The Power of Planning
As we spiral towards the end of the year, planning may very well not be top of mind. But this is in fact the perfect time to be planning for the new year to ensure you are leading your team towards a successful year.
Leaving it until the new year isn’t ideal, because the reality is by the time everyone is back from leave, school is back, and things are back to ‘normal’ – the likelihood is you won’t have your entire team back together again until mid-way through Q1.
In this episode Juliet and Kristy-Lee discuss the power of planning and why now is the time to get started.
We would love to hear from you about how you approach planning with your team, and how planning has helped you lead your team. You can share your experiences and ask questions at https://www.facebook.com/growyourinfluence/
Boundaries – setting them and holding them
Most people don’t talk about boundaries. For some, it’s because we don’t have the language, but for most of us it’s because we aren’t aware of our boundaries until someone crosses them. And yet, being able to articulate what’s important to us, and what is ok and what isn’t, makes us feel more confident and in control of our life.
In this episode Juliet and Kristy-Lee discuss the different types of boundaries and the challenges of articulating these. Whilst we rarely refer to boundaries, as a leader it is important to be able to talk with our teams about what team members think is acceptable behaviour and what isn’t. This is difficult to do if we aren’t able to talk about where some of our own boundaries lie and Juliet and Kristy-Lee discuss strategies to help you have these conversations within your teams.
We would love to hear from you about how you deal with boundaries and, if you have articulated some of these, how that has helped you lead your team. You can share your experiences and ask questions at https://www.facebook.com/growyourinfluence/
Emotional management
Self awareness and understanding how to manage our emotions are fundamental aspects of leadership. As leaders, we need to understand our responses under pressure and the impact we have on others. Tools like DiSC and the Team Management Profile give us insights into our personal responses to conflict and can help us build a common language as a team around how we respond to one another.
In this episode Juliet and Kristy-Lee discuss the difference between emotional reactions and responses, the role of assertiveness, and the importance of role modelling emotional control in our team. They have strategies to help you stay in control of your responses and to help others in your team engage in difficult conversations without resorting to personal attacks.
We would love to hear from you about how you respond to difficult situations and, if you have done some work with a self awareness tool, how that has helped you lead or respond to difficult situations. You can share your experiences and ask questions at https://www.facebook.com/growyourinfluence/
Stepping into leadership of an established team
The question of how best to step in as a new leader of an established team was raised by a listener and reflects the experiences of many leaders as they advance in their careers. So often the people they are coming in to lead are doing well, however there may be issues they need to address. The perils of ‘hitting the ground running’ and the importance of a comprehensive induction are two of the issues that need to be addressed.
In this episode Juliet and Kristy-Lee discuss how:
we need to support new leaders coming into help us lead;
we, as a new leader, need to manage upward and get curious; and
team members can support their new leader to understand the culture of the team and take on leadership of the team as effectively as possible.
We would love to hear about your experiences of new leadership roles and how you got ‘up to speed’ on the processes and the politics. You can share your experiences and ask questions at https://www.facebook.com/growyourinfluence/
What does an effective wellbeing programme look like and who owns it?
Today we’re responding to a question from a new Team Leader who has been asked to set up a wellbeing programme for his team. Our first question is really “is this his responsibility”? Wellbeing programmes are gaining in popularity and can be valuable in assisting your team members deal with work and life, and everything in between. There are many questions about who should drive the development of these programmes and what should be included.
In this episode Juliet and Kristy-Lee discuss where ownership of a wellbeing programme sits in an organisation and how we can work with our teams to develop programmes that reflect the needs of team members.
We would love to hear about your experiences of developing or implementing a wellbeing programme with your team, or your experiences accessing this sort of assistance. You can share your experiences and ask questions at https://www.facebook.com/growyourinfluence/
Curiosity and the Power of Questions
Today on the Grow Your Influence Podcast Juliet and Kristy-Lee are discussing the super power that is curiosity, and just how powerful questions can be as a tool in our leadership toolkit.
When we are truly curious, and ask great questions, we undoubtedly find out more impactful and relevant information from our team. The problem is, too often we make assumptions about what our people are thinking, feeling and why they are behaving in a certain way.
In this episode we unpack the types of questioning techniques you can use across a range of scenarios to help have better discussions with, and understanding of our people.
Also as discussed in today's episode, Kristy-Lee is hosting a Mastering Difficult Conversations workshop from the 18th September, you can get all the details and register right here:
https://www.peoplepoweredbusiness.com.au/powerweek
Effective Team Meetings with Cat Matson
On this episode of Grow Your Influence we are bringing you a discussion that Kristy-Lee recently had with Cat Matson of Impactful Presenters on holding effective, impactful and engaging team meetings.
Cat is the CEO and Lead Facilitator of Impactful Presenters, empowering business owners and community leaders to speak with confidence, authority, authenticity and impact.
A popular and accomplished Speaker, MC and Moderator, Cat is known for her straight-talking, 'realness' and extracting 'the juice' from her clients.
As mentioned, Cat also has a free workshop running in September 2023, called Speaking with Impact – I highly recommend checking it out, here is the link to register:
It’s not your responsibility
Do you feel like you need to look after your employees’ careers, life experiences or happiness? If so, you are probably taking on way more than you should. It can be tempting to solve problems for our team members, including ensuring they are happy beyond work, that they are seeking out career growth etc, or even (as we hear) ensuring they have petrol in their car. The reality is that, when we do this, we are not helping our people take responsibility for their own issues and feel the satisfaction of problem solving and growing.
In this episode Juliet and Kristy-Lee share their experiences of teams where the leaders have taken responsibility for way more than they need to, and the impact on both the leaders and the team members.
We would love to hear about how you manage personal responsibility in your team and the challenges you have faced and the challenges you have faced when employees want you t ‘own’ their issues. You can share your experiences and ask questions at https://www.facebook.com/growyourinfluence/
Leadership and Assertiveness
Do you struggle to say what needs to be said? To say no when you need to? In this episode of the Grow Your Influence Podcast we are talking about a topic that rarely gets aired but can make such a difference to the way we feel about ourselves and the way we lead.
Being assertive is about more than being to ask for what you need without needing to override the needs of others. This ‘goldilocks’ behaviour enables us to lead in a way that makes us feel good about ourselves and brings others with us.
Juliet and Kristy-Lee share their experiences of what assertiveness looks like, what’s required to ‘hold the line’ and how we can remain assertive even under pressure.
We would love to hear about how you demonstrate assertiveness, or the challenges you have faced in doing this, and the impact it has had on you leadership. You can share your experiences and ask questions at https://www.facebook.com/growyourinfluence/
Tackling Fear in Our Leadership Journey
In this episode of the Grow Your Influence Podcast we are chatting about a topic we don’t talk enough about as leaders – and that is fear.
Whether you are fearful of stepping into your first leadership role, or having a moment of feeling fear of tackling a tricky conversation, dealing with conflict or some other challenging situation, this discussion is for you.
Juliet and Kristy-Lee share their experiences working with leaders who are in a state of fear, or who have fear holding them back, as well as their own experiences of when they have experienced the feeling of fear in their leadership journey.
We would love to know about your experience with feeling fearful as a leader. You can share your experiences and ask questions at https://www.facebook.com/growyourinfluence/
Changing a Toxic Culture
In this episode of the Grow Your Influence Podcast we are tackling the tricky topic of a toxic workplace culture.
We have all worked in an environments which have had a level of toxicity to them. They are not fun, they are negative, unproductive and can be damaging to individual morale and to the success of a business.
So what do you do when you find yourself either inheriting, or leading, in a toxic environment?
Juliet and Kristy-Lee share their experiences working with teams and leaders where the workplace has become toxic. We discuss the core elements that make up workplace culture, and what you can do as a leader to turn a toxic environment around.
We would love to know about your experience with toxic workplace cultures. You can share your experiences and ask questions at https://www.facebook.com/growyourinfluence/
Reward and Recognition Programs
In our last episode we were talking about our end of financial year check-ins.
It is also a good time to assess how our rewards and recognition programme is working and whether you need to be tweaking aspects of it to build skills and confidence.
In today’s episode we are talking about how we reward our team members. This is important, not just for motivation but also as an opportunity to connect with team members around the things that motivate them.
There are many teams where the reward and recognition programme fail to motivate the very people it is supposed to be designed for. This is a common trap and one that can easily be avoided.
Kristy-Lee and Juliet discuss how to connect with your team members and tap into the things that motivate them, rather than the things you think will be motivating.
Juliet and Kristy-Lee discuss their experiences working with teams who use this time of the year effectively, and the outcomes they see as a result.
We would love to know about your approach to reward and recognition programs. You can find out more about us, comment and ask questions at https://www.facebook.com/growyourinfluence/
End of Financial Year Planning and Your Team
In this episode of the Grow Your Influence Podcast Kristy-Lee and Juliet are discussing the end of the financial year.
Whilst for some teams and businesses, this can be avery busy time of year and have some firm deadlines and key activities, for others there is not a whole lot that is different about this time of year.
What we have found with the teams we work with is that this can be a really critical time of year to bring the team back together, re focus the goals, re align the objectives and get some new motivation happening.
Today we discuss some strategies leaders can be implementing at this time of year to help set their teams up for success in Q3 and Q4.
We would love to know about your experiences with end of financial year planning you’re your team. You can find out more about us, comment and ask questions at https://www.facebook.com/growyourinfluence/
Creating Inclusive Workplaces with Nick Mills
In this episode of the Grow Your Influence Podcast Kristy-Lee interviews Nick Mills – leadership and management facilitator, coach and PhD participant.
Nick is a versatile and dynamic trainer who holds Bachelor and Master’s degrees in Adult Education, an Advanced Diploma in the Neuroscience of Leadership and he is currently engaged part time with the University of Tasmania where he is completing his PhD in inclusion for LGBTQI + leaders in the finance and professional services sectors.
In todays discussion we unpacked the research behind Nick’s PhD, which focuses on how all Australian workplaces can be truly inclusive and welcome places.
If you’d like to connect with Nick you can do so via LinkedIn here - https://www.linkedin.com/in/nick-mills-4371544/
We would love to know about your experiences with creating inclusive workplaces. You can find out more about us, comment and ask questions at https://www.facebook.com/growyourinfluence/
Working with People Who Have Different Beliefs or Values to Us
In this episode we are following on from our previous topic of working with family.
Today’s episode is a discussion on how we can navigate working with people, and having members of our team, who have differing values and beliefs to us.
How can we create workplaces that respect and create space for a variety of belief and values systems, without conflict and in a way that ensures everyone feels included and psychologically safe at work?
Like our last episode. This is another complex topic, and today we are skimming the surface of navigating these waters.
Juliet and Kristy-Lee discuss their experiences working with teams who have faced these challenges, and how they have navigated them successfully.
We would love to know about your experiences working with people who don’t share your beliefs or values. You can find out more about us, comment and ask questions at https://www.facebook.com/growyourinfluence/
Working with Family
In this episode we are discussing the tricky topic of working with family.
It’s such a complex topic, yet there are so many family owned and run businesses in Australia and across the world, and even more family members working together in other peoples businesses.
Juliet and Kristy-Lee discuss their experiences working with and supporting family run businesses, and the challenges and opportunities that can present themselves when working with family.
We would love to know about your experiences working with family. You can find out more about us, comment and ask questions at https://www.facebook.com/growyourinfluence/
From the Vault - Leveraging and Leading Different Generations in the Workplace
Today we are revisiting a hot topic - Leveraging and Leading Different Generations in the Workplace.
In this episode we discuss different generations at work, and we unpack what is brilliant and unique about all of the different generations, share some experiences and thoughts as to what forms different patterns of behaviour between the generation and most importantly look at how we can leverage and lead each different generation.
From The Vault - Dealing with Difficult People at Work
From the vault! In this episode we revisit how to tackle the bane of everyone's work life: difficult people and how to deal with them, wherever they appear in your work life.
Using Our Voice to Connect with Our Teams with Anne Maree Wilshire
In this weeks episode of our summer series of interviews, Kristy-Lee chats with Anne Maree Wilshire of Vibrant Voices.
Anne Maree helps leaders and speakers whose voice is an integral part of their branding to become more impactful, to transform their voice style and message and speak with confidence and authority so they are a voice people want to hear.
She does this through her Vibrant Voices Framework in individual and group coaching programmes and her Vibrant Voices Studio membership community.
Her clients transform their voice and message into a powerful asset that authentically reflects them and makes their message memorable and compelling.
She is a recognised expert in the areas of voice and presentation skills, leadership, influence, collaboration, conflict resolution and authenticity.
Anne Maree has kindly shared an amazing resource with us – get access here:
https://www.vibrantvoices.com.au/smallbusnovspecialoffer
If you’d like to connect with Anne Maree head over to
To join in the conversation about psychometric profiling, head over to:
Understanding How to Use Our Voice for Influence with Anne Maree Wilshire
In this weeks episode of our summer series of interviews, Kristy-Lee chats with Anne Maree Wilshire of Vibrant Voices.
Anne Maree helps leaders and speakers whose voice is an integral part of their branding to become more impactful, to transform their voice style and message and speak with confidence and authority so they are a voice people want to hear.
She does this through her Vibrant Voices Framework in individual and group coaching programmes and her Vibrant Voices Studio membership community.
Her clients transform their voice and message into a powerful asset that authentically reflects them and makes their message memorable and compelling.
She is a recognised expert in the areas of voice and presentation skills, leadership, influence, collaboration, conflict resolution and authenticity.
Anne Maree has kindly shared an amazing resource with us – get access here:
https://www.vibrantvoices.com.au/smallbusnovspecialoffer
If you’d like to connect with Anne Maree head over to
To join in the conversation about psychometric profiling, head over to:
Understanding Neurodiversity Within Our Team with Nicci Richman
In this weeks episode of our summer series of interviews, Kristy-Lee chats with Nicci Richman from Audir, who is a Diversity and Inclusion Consultant with a passion for supporting neurodivergent individuals within the workplace.
This is the second part of a 2 part discission and todays chat focuses on understanding neurodivergence within our people, and how we can best leverage this for their success in their roles.
We unpack what to look for, what communication may or may not be appropriate, how to understand different work styles and how to create an environment where neurodivergent team members can thrive.
If you’d like to reach out to Nicci you can connect with her on LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicci-richman-abb5541a/
Or visit her website:
To join in the conversation about psychometric profiling, head over to:
Understanding Our Own Neurodiversity as Leaders
In this weeks episode of our summer series of interviews, Kristy-Lee chats with Nicci Richman from Audir, who is a Diversity and Inclusion Consultant with a passion for supporting neurodivergent individuals within the workplace.
This is part 1 of a 2 part discission and todays chat focuses on understanding what neurodivergence is, and how we as leaders can understand and leverage our own neurodiversity in our leadership and management roles.
In next weeks episode we’ll get into how to understand and lead individuals on your teams who are neurodivergent, and how to get the most out of those team members.
If you’d like to reach out to Nicci you can connect with her on LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicci-richman-abb5541a/
Or visit her website:
To join in the conversation about psychometric profiling, head over to:
Growing and Leading a Hybrid Team with Authenticity and Influence with Natalie Egleton – CEO of the Foundation for Rural and Regional Renewal
In the next of our new year interview series, Juliet chats with Natalie Egleton, the CEO of FRRR since 2015. FRRR has been at the forefront of responses to the bushfires and floods that have impacted so many communities across rural and regional Australia. Natalie’s focus on capacity building has grown the organisation from its focus on grant facilitation to a partner that is helping to drive capacity building within communities.
Having built the FRRR team significantly through Covid lockdowns, Natalie leads a hybrid team spread up the east coast of Australia and into WA and she offers us insights into the challenges of keeping people connected when they are working remotely. She also has some incredibly valuable insights around leading authentically and using power, influence and authority. This is an episode not to miss.
You can listen to the interview and find out more about us and FRRR at https://www.facebook.com/growyourinfluence/
The Value of Using Psychometric Assessments
n the second episode of our new year interview series, Kristy-Lee chats with Charissa Lim from Impact Persona. Charissa is a Certified Behavioural Consultant and DISC advocate who’s passionate about helping businesses gain first-hand insights into the people's behavioural traits through one of the world's most popular personality profiling tools. People come with different personalities. Charissa's goal is to harness the power of DISC Profiling to help her clients make informed hiring decisions, and identify the most ideal candidates that would best fit the business culture or role requirements.
In our conversation we chat about the value of using psychometrics in the recruitment process to help make better hiring choices, and how useful these reports can be as an ongoing team building and management tool.
If you’d like to reach out to Charissa you can find her at:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/charissalim/
https://www.impactpersona.com.au/
To join in the conversation about psychometric profiling, head over to:
Leading With Passion with Monique Farmer from Women Want Adventure
In the first of our new year interview series, Juliet chats with Monique Farmer, the founder and CEO of Women Want Adventure. Monique started the outdoor adventure business six years ago and has navigated bushfires, floods and Covid lockdowns to build a team of 12 staff who help women reconnect with nature and themselves through guided adventures.
Monique is passionate about her ‘why’ and keeping her team connected, when they are all working out in the field. The ultimate ‘remote team”! She also has some advice for her younger self and those starting out as entrepreneurs today.
You can listen to the interview and find out more about us and Women Want Adventure at https://www.facebook.com/growyourinfluence/
Connecting with Your Leadership Skills to Drive Business Success
In this episode we bring you the second and final part of a recent interview Kristy-Lee conducted with Juliet for a Small Business Month event.
In November, NSW celebrated Small Business Month, with the theme of ‘connect for success’. As part of our activities, Kristy-Lee hosted a series of ‘connection conversations’ where she interviewed experts from a range of sectors to uncover different ways we can connect with our team to drive business success.
In this part of the discussion, we take a look at how you can connect with your own leadership skills to help drive business success.
We would love to know about your experiences connecting with your own unique leadership skills. You can find out more about us, comment and ask questions at https://www.facebook.com/growyourinfluence/
Connecting with Your Team to Drive Business Success
In this episode we bring you the first part of a recent interview Kristy-Lee conducted with Juliet for a Small Business Month event.
In November, NSW celebrated Small Business Month, with the theme of ‘connect for success’. As part of our activities, Kristy-Lee hosted a series of ‘connection conversations’ where she interviewed experts from a range of sectors to uncover different ways we can connect with our team to drive business success.
In this part of the discussion, we take a look at the different ways we can connect with our people to help drive business success.
We would love to know about your experiences connecting with your team. You can find out more about us, comment and ask questions at https://www.facebook.com/growyourinfluence/
Culture – How to change it if you need to
In this episode we continue our conversation about culture and this time we are talking about what we need to do as leaders if we want to change our culture. Sometimes we need to consciously make changes and, at other times, things like rapid growth in our business will bring those changes to our door.
Change is never ending and when we are growing or innovating this can involve changes to systems and processes, as well as changing stories, traditions and power balances. The reality is that when things change some people won’t want to roll with the changes and will choose to leave instead. In this episode we discuss this and how to keep people engaged with the changes.
We would love to know about your experiences managing culture. You can find out more about us, comment and ask questions at https://www.facebook.com/growyourinfluence/
Culture – How to build it and maintain it
Culture can sometimes feel like something people refer to but you can’t quite get your hands around. Whilst we are often focused on goals and measures, culture, often described as ‘the way we do things around here’ is the X factor that will help us deliver. Building and maintaining the culture you want isn’t always easy, and it is always led from the top.
In this episode we are talking about explicitly using your values to drive behaviours that build and sustain the culture you want. Have a listen!
You can find out more about us, comment and ask questions at https://www.facebook.com/growyourinfluence/
Discussing Underperformance
Welcome to the latest episode of Grow Your Influence.
Today we are talking about discussing underperformance with someone on our team.
This is something that leader across the globe struggle with. Often because we don’t like confrontation, or aren’t sure how to have frank and honest conversations with our team.
No matter the reason, putting these conversations off is not doing the right thing by anyone, the employee, the business or yourself.
If you want to join the conversation about underperformance and how to deal with it, or have any follow up questions about today’s episode, we’d love to hear from you, jump over to the Facebook Page and let us know - https://www.facebook.com/growyourinfluence
Understanding Your Leadership Style
Welcome to the latest episode of Grow Your Influence.
Today we are talking about leadership styles – and it’s such a big topic we may be back for an entire series to go deeper into this area.
There is no one size fits all approach to leadership, we all have our own innate styles, and we adopt what we have observed or want to avoid from our own experience.
Understanding our leadership style can help with our self awareness, allow us to tap into our strengths and be aware of our blind spots and generally develop stronger leadership practices across the board.
If you would like to join the conversation about leadership styles, or have any follow up questions about today’s episode, we’d love to hear from you, jump over to the Facebook Page and let us know - https://www.facebook.com/growyourinfluence/
Creating Learning Opportunities for Your People
Welcome to the latest episode of Grow Your Influence.
Today we are talking about a topic which is so important to the majority of our people – learning at work.
In today’s episode we discuss the benefits of learning in the workplace, and investing in learning opportunities for your people and we share strategies that we are seeing work for the organisations we support when it comes to the benefits on the workplace of staff learning.
If you would like to join the conversation about learning in the workplace, or have any follow up questions about today’s episode, we’d love to hear from you, jump over to the Facebook Page and let us know - https://www.facebook.com/growyourinfluence/
Engaging and Motivating Your Team
Welcome to the latest episode of Grow Your Influence.
Today we are talking about one of the fundamentals of leading a team, and that is how to engage them, and how to motivate them, and what the difference is between the two.
You see if your team aren’t engaged at a foundation level, then all of your motivation strategies can fail to real boost performance so it’s essential you take care of that foundation piece first.
Today we share what we’ve seen work, strategies we’ve used and why this is so important.
If you would like to join the conversation about trust, or have any follow up questions about today’s episode, we’d love to hear from you, jump over to the Facebook Page and let us know - https://www.facebook.com/growyourinfluence/
Building Trust in Your Team – Part 3
Welcome to the latest episode of Grow Your Influence.
Today we are finalising our 3-part series on one of the most fundamental pieces of creating and cultivating a great team and culture – trust!
Simon Sinek puts it best when he says that ‘a team is not a group of people who work together, it’s a group of people who trust each other’ but knowing how to specifically go about building and nurturing that level of trust is not always simple or straight forward for us as leaders.
In this 3-part series of the podcast, we’re unpacking a specific framework around trust originally created by David Horsager, and what he refers to as the ‘8 Pillars of Trust’.
In each of the 3 episodes we’ll dive deeper into 2-3 of the pillars and unpack how in practice you can use that pillar to encourage trust in your teams.
If you would like to join the conversation about trust, or have any follow up questions about today’s episode, we’d love to hear from you, jump over to the Facebook Page and let us know - https://www.facebook.com/growyourinfluence/
Building Trust in Your Team – Part 2
Welcome to the latest episode of Grow Your Influence.
Today we are continuing our 3-part series on one of the most fundamental pieces of creating and cultivating a great team and culture – trust!
Simon Sinek puts it best when he says that ‘a team is not a group of people who work together, it’s a group of people who trust each other’ but knowing how to specifically go about building and nurturing that level of trust is not always simple or straight forward for us as leaders.
In this 3-part series of the podcast, we’re unpacking a specific framework around trust originally created by David Horsager, and what he refers to as the ‘8 Pillars of Trust’.
In each of the 3 episodes we’ll dive deeper into 2-3 of the pillars and unpack how in practice you can use that pillar to encourage trust in your teams.
If you would like to join the conversation about trust, or have any follow up questions about today’s episode, we’d love to hear from you, jump over to the Facebook Page and let us know - https://www.facebook.com/growyourinfluence/
Building Trust in Your Team – Part 1
Welcome to the latest episode of Grow Your Influence.
Today we are kicking off a 3-part series on one of the most fundamental pieces of creating and cultivating a great team and culture – trust!
Simon Sinek puts it best when he says that ‘a team is not a group of people who work together, it’s a group of people who trust each other’ but knowing how to specifically go about building and nurturing that level of trust is not always simple or straight forward for us as leaders.
In this 3-part series of the podcast, we’re unpacking a specific framework around trust originally created by David Horsager, and what he refers to as the ‘8 Pillars of Trust’.
In each of the 3 episodes we’ll dive deeper into 2-3 of the pillars and unpack how in practice you can use that pillar to encourage trust in your teams.
If you would like to join the conversation about trust, or have any follow up questions about today’s episode, we’d love to hear from you, jump over to the Facebook Page and let us know - https://www.facebook.com/growyourinfluence/
Navigating the Role of Co-CEO With Amanda Robinson
Welcome to the latest episode of Grow Your Influence.
Today we’re joined by special guest, Amanda Robinson, Co-CEO of the Australasian operations of Marshall Day Acoustics for the past five years. Amanda is a Mechanical Engineer who has specialised in acoustics since graduating with honours from Adelaide University. Amanda’s focus on building leadership capability brought Juliet and Amanda together, and Juliet has been working with her for more than a year, and found her journey as Co-CEO so fascinating she invited her onto the podcast to share her experience.
If you have experience in a joint leadership role or would like to share a key takeaway from this episode, we’d love to know, let us know on our Facebook Page - https://www.facebook.com/growyourinfluence/
Values and Behaviours
Today we're discussing a topic that is often neglected but is so important in leading your team and organisation. Today we're tackling your values and the behaviours that represent them.
So often, if we articulate our values at all, we announce them, maybe include them in documents and don't really focus on them any further. The reality is that, unless we articulate the behaviours that support our values, they will never make any difference to the way we work.
As we discuss today, behaviours will be different across different teams but, with common values to guide them, your teams will develop a cohesive approach to how they work across the organisation and how they deal with customers and suppliers. Articulating behaviours also enables you to include them in your KPIs as we discussed in Episode 18.
Do you have clear values and have you developed supporting behaviours with your team? We'd love to know, let us know on our Facebook Page - www.facebook.com/growyourinfluence/